While most schools talk about integrating technology into education, I see it as the other way around: It’s our education that should be integrated into technology. Technology is part of all our lives, the world we live in. It’s relevant, useful, and accessible. It’s happening now. Technology is part of the media that surrounds us, seeped into our language, lifestyles and culture.
Tech is about people and ideas, and in the sense of education, it’s a tree-lined avenue for students to make connections among their peers, to access mind-boggling amounts of information, and to foster their own creativity.
The term 'hi-tech', in a sense, is a dated term, conjuring an often fearful, misunderstood entity where a privileged few, high-level thinking post-graduates of MIT perhaps, are privy to. But time and again, the best ideas are almost always the simplest, coming from the 12 year-old kid looking out the window and wondering 'what if?'. I realize that the latest Macbook Pros, for example, are affordable to very few of our world’s population, but the crux of the argument here is relevancy.
Three billion people will go hungry today. There is nothing more relevant than this. I don't know how technology can change this, but new ideas, surely not realized by our generation, eventually will.
I like watching my students on their laptops. The fluidity in which these grade sixers navigate around their MacBooks, which they’ve had for only a few months now, researching, coursing through pages, documents, text, all the while organizing, synthesizing, creating and collaborating. These skills can be applied throughout their lives. Blooms taxonomy covered with clicks and drags. It’s communication. Humanness.
My 18-month-old nephew navigates the I-phone. I see eighty year old women texting in the elevator. Technology and education should not be separated. The problems faced in our world cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them. We need new ideas. Teaching that is relevant to our students includes the new ideas of technology. It’s just good practice.
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My thoughts on Tech and Education
While most schools talk about integrating technology into education, I see it as the other way around: It’s our education that should be integrated into technology. Technology is part of all our lives, the world we live in. It’s relevant, useful, and accessible. It’s happening now. Technology is part of the media that surrounds us, seeped into our language, lifestyles and culture.
Tech is about people and ideas, and in the sense of education, it’s a tree-lined avenue for students to make connections among their peers, to access mind-boggling amounts of information, and to foster their own creativity.
The term 'hi-tech', in a sense, is a dated term, conjuring an often fearful, misunderstood entity where a privileged few, high-level thinking post-graduates of MIT perhaps, are privy to. But time and again, the best ideas are almost always the simplest, coming from the 12 year-old kid looking out the window and wondering 'what if?'. I realize that the latest Macbook Pros, for example, are affordable to very few of our world’s population, but the crux of the argument here is relevancy.
Three billion people will go hungry today. There is nothing more relevant than this. I don't know how technology can change this, but new ideas, surely not realized by our generation, eventually will.
I like watching my students on their laptops. The fluidity in which these grade sixers navigate around their MacBooks, which they’ve had for only a few months now, researching, coursing through pages, documents, text, all the while organizing, synthesizing, creating and collaborating. These skills can be applied throughout their lives. Blooms taxonomy covered with clicks and drags. It’s communication. Humanness.
My 18-month-old nephew navigates the I-phone. I see eighty year old women texting in the elevator. Technology and education should not be separated. The problems faced in our world cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them. We need new ideas. Teaching that is relevant to our students includes the new ideas of technology. It’s just good practice.